Sick tanker crew headed for SARS-hit Hong Kong

Reuters ^ | May 3, 2003

[dark_lord]

Well there goes the "Indians have special immunity, India need have no fears of SARS" perspective (courtesy of the Indian government.)

[CathyRyan]

ping

[Nov3]

The vessel left Thailand on April 28, and 10 of its 24 crews -- all reported to be of Indian origin -- were ill with fever, coughs and bodyaches, which are among the flu-like symptoms of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.

Thailand, India?

[Dog Gone]

Some sort of rent-a-crew, I guess. The ship itself is Malaysian.

[blam]

"Some sort of rent-a-crew, I guess. The ship itself is Malaysian."

Yup. Very common.

[harpseal]

Given the distances involved we could be talking Sinpore as the source of this ship's SARS. The question is did they bring the infection to Tailand also?

[Joe Hadenuf]

As the endless lines of jumbo jets are lined up from Asia to America, on approach to an airport near you.....

[dc-zoo]

So if its bio-warfare, the terrorists once again succeed in utilizing our airline industry against us. I suppose sars is biowar, either intentional or naturally occuring. Either way, its war.

[Domestic Church]

Maybe they have a longer incubation though. When did this ship arrive in Thailand and where was it before Thailand?

[Judith Anne]

Truthfully, I don't think that any particular genetic group is going to have any special immunity.

[blam]

"Truthfully, I don't think that any particular genetic group is going to have any special immunity."

That's my opinion also.

[Betty Jo]

The ship "Bunga Melawis Satu" is owned by "Maylasian International Shipping Company -MISC",which is owned by "Petronas"which is owned by the Government of Maylasia.

It has complete control over the gas and oil of Maylasia.

Petronas has hundreds of subsidiaries all over the world,including joint ventures in America, Viet Nam, etc.

Petronas owns The Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur.

Their are Binny boy terrs in Maylasia.

So do we now have three ships with dead /and or sick guys?

Any connections?

Nicholas Brady, an ex Treasurer of the US is on the board of Armerada Hess,which is in business with Petronas.

Any thoughts?

[Judith Anne]

Oy gevalt! (As my sainted Jewish mother used to say, may she rest in peace...)

[blam]

"So do we now have three ships with dead /and or sick guys? "

Three ships? I've only heard about one.

[Betty Jo]

How do you spell Oy Veugh! ?

I cant get the url to work ,but on Google news there is a new article from Japan talking about compulsory hospitalization of SARS victims.

[Betty Jo]

This one, that first one ,the WadiAl Arab,and the other one yesterday ,with the Bulgarian Todor Nadrev Petrov.

[Judith Anne]

Oy vey! ;-D

[steve86]

I haven't entirely bought in to the genetic immunity link, but I have to say that my wife, who was born and raised in Mumbai (Bombay), practically never gets sick here. This is even though I not infrequently get pretty severe "Norwalk" type GI bugs. My mother catches them from me at the drop of a hat, and me from her, but my wife, never! And she doesn't get flu shots and never gets the flu.

We had an East Indian grocery here in the states a few years ago. I noticed that the customers were not prone to getting ill with common infectious diseases, although sinus problems were common, and the older ones tended to have heart conditions.

If you listen to some of the stories from people who have grown up in a third-world country it is not difficult to believe they have developed immunity to a broad spectrum of communicable disease (they certainly get sick when home). If you couple that with the (tentative) finding that they have or don't have (I can't remember which) a gene that diminishes the hyper-autoimmune response seen in SARS, maybe they do have something going for them.

I wonder if the ship had, say 24 Norwegians, how many would be sick?

[steve86]

I wonder if the ship had, say 24 Norwegians, how many would be sick?

Sorry, I meant to ping these people on my last post about the hypothesized Indian immunity...